Impact of oregano and virgin olive oil phenolic compounds on acrylamide content in a model system and fresh potatoes

In this study the effect of olive oil and oregano phenolic compounds on antioxidant activity (AOA) and acrylamide formation in a model system and fresh potatoes was evaluated. The addition of oregano phenolic extract in the model system resulted in an increase of AOA and in a reduction of acrylamide content, up to 49%, after heating. On the contrary, addition of olive oil extract resulted in AOA reduction and a concentration-dependent effect on acrylamide formation was observed with a reduction up to 15% (p < 0.05) followed by an increase up to 48%. The same trend, in acrylamide formation, was observed in fresh potatoes but to a lower extent. Finally, addition of tyrosol, oleuropein and p-hydroxyphenylacetic acid in the model system resulted in acrylamide reduction up to 50%. The discrepancy in acrylamide formation, caused by phenolic compounds, is ascribed to their structure and related to their terminal functional hydroxyl and aldehydic groups.     

Raising agents strongly influence acrylamide and HMF formation in cookies and conditions for asparaginase activity in dough

The impact of raising agents on formation of heat-induced contaminants, acrylamide and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), with focus on the efficiency of enzyme asparaginase as a potent tool for acrylamide reduction was investigated in the model system of cereal products. Acrylamide formation was strongly supported by ammonium hydrogen carbonate (NH₄HCO₃), observing 6 times higher level in comparison with control sample without raising agents, and was suppressed effectively by sodium hydrogen carbonate (NaHCO₃) up to 52 %. Sodium pyrophosphate (Na₄P₂O₇) had no influence on the final acrylamide content. The level of HMF remained untouched by NH₄HCO₃ contrary to sodium raising agents that both diminished HMF concentration up to 95 % using NaHCO₃. Furthermore, enzyme asparaginase eliminated acrylamide formation in the range from 23 to 75 % depending mainly on pH value of dough and time of enzyme incubation (15, 30 and 60 min). The optimum pH value for asparaginase action was in neutrality. Na₄P₂O₇ shifted pH value of dough to the optimum in comparison with control (from 5.82 to 6.78). NH₄HCO₃ and NaHCO₃ changed pH value out of optimum up to 7.82 and 8.10, respectively. The longer the enzyme treatment, the higher the acrylamide elimination was observed, with the main importance in cases of pH shifting by raising agents. These findings indicate that a product-specific optimization of the conditions for enzymatic treatment is still challenging in terms of achieving desired quality parameters with improved safety, although acrylamide mitigation by means of asparaginase was proved to be a very effective tool especially in cereal-based products.     

Conducting composites prepared by the reduction of silver ions with poly(p‐phenylenediamine)

Poly(p‐phenylenediamine) (PPDA) and also its ladder‐like analogue were prepared by oxidation of p‐phenylenediamine with ammonium peroxydisulfate in an aqueous solution of 0.4 mol L^?1 hydrochloric acid and converted to PPDA bases. These were used as reductants of silver nitrate to silver nanoparticles in 1 mol L^?1 methanesulfonic acid or in water at various mole ratios of silver nitrate to p‐phenylenediamine units from 0 to 1.8. The original conductivity of the PPDA, 10^?12 S cm^?1, increased to the order of 100 S cm^?1 for the PPDA–silver composites containing 27–40 wt% (i.e. 4.5–6.6 vol%) silver. Fourier transform infrared spectra indicated a practically unchanged molecular structure of PPDA in the composites. In contrast, Raman spectroscopy showed the existence of regions with unchanged molecular structure of PPDA as well as the presence of regions containing silver particles and oxidized PPDA moieties. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry     

Dissipative particle dynamics simulations of polyelectrolyte self-assemblies. Methods with explicit electrostatics

This feature article is addressed to a broad community of polymer scientists, both theoreticians and experimentalists. We present several examples of our dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations of selfand co-assembling polyelectrolyte systems to illustrate the power of DPD. In the first part, we briefly outline basic principles of DPD. Special emphasis is placed on the incorporation of explicit electrostatic forces into DPD, on their calibration with respect to the soft repulsion forces and on the use of DPD for studying the self-assembly of electrically charged polymer systems. At present, the method with explicit electrostatics is being used in a number of studies of the behavior of single polyelectrolyte chains, their interaction with other components of the system, etc. However, in DPD studies of self-assembly, which require high numbers of chains, only a few research groups use explicit electrostatics. Most studies of polyelectrolyte self-assembly are based on the “implicit solvent ionic strength” approach, which completely ignores the long-range character of electrostatic interactions, because their evaluation complicates and considerably slows down the DPD simulation runs. We aim at the analysis of the impact of explicit electrostatics on simulation results.     

A study of the interaction of mechanically generated polypropylene radicals with phenolic antioxidant in the presence of oxygen by EPR spectroscopy

Isotactic polypropylene (iPP) was mechanically degraded in the absence and presence of a phenolic antioxidant at liquid nitrogen temperature in the presence of oxygen. The interaction of the primarily formed iPP macroradicals with oxygen and phenol was studied by EPR spectroscopy in the temperature region between 77 and 303 K at antioxidant concentrations of 0.1, 0.5, and 3.0 wt%. It was found that iPP macroradicals react at low temperature with oxygen, yielding peroxy radicals, and with antioxidant, with a simultaneous formation of phenoxy radicals. The development and decay of all kinds of radicals was studied. The rate constants for peroxy radical decay were determined and the apparent activation energies for the regions of slow and fast decay were calculated. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Differentiation of toxigenic fungi using hyperspectral imagery

Some pathogenic fungi, Aspergillus flavus for example, produce mycotoxins that can contaminate grain products including wheat and corn. The contaminated grain poses a threat to the health of both humans and animals. Therefore, from the perspective of food safety and protection, it is important to detect and identify the different toxin-producing fungi encountered in food production. Earlier studies examined various spectral-based, non-destructive methods for the detection of fungi and toxins. The present report focused on the feasibility of using spectral image data for fungal species classification. A tabletop hyperspectral imaging system, VNIR-100E, was used for spectral and spatial data acquisition. A total of five fungal species were selected for a two-part experiment: Penicillium chrysogenum, Fusarium moniliforme (verticillioides), Aspergillus parasiticus, Trichoderma viride, and Aspergillus flavus. All fungal isolates were cultured on media under laboratory conditions and were imaged on day 5 of growth. The objective of the study was to use visible near-infrared hyperspectral imagery to differentiate fungal species. Results indicate that all five fungi are highly separable with classification accuracy of 97.7%. In addition, all five fungi could be classified by using only three narrow bands (bandwidth = 2.43 nm) centered at 743 nm, 458 nm, and 541 nm.     

In vitro study of partially hydrolyzed poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazolines) as materials for biomedical applications

Polymers based on 2-oxazoline, such as poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazolines) (PETOx), are considered to be a type of ‘pseudopeptide’ with the ability to form novel biomaterials. The hydrolysis of PETOx was carried out to evaluate its use in biomedical applications. In the present work, PETOx samples with a range of molar masses were prepared by living cationic polymerization. Hydrolysis was carried out at time intervals ranging from 15 to 180 min to prepare copolymers with different amounts of ethylene imine units. ¹H NMR spectroscopy was used to identify the structure of the hydrolyzed polymers. The dependence of in vitro cell viability on the degree of hydrolysis was determined using three different model cell lines, namely, mouse embryonic 3T3 fibroblasts, pancreatic βTC3 cells, and mouse lymphoid macrophages P388.D1. It was demonstrated that increasing the degree of hydrolysis decreased cell viability for all cell types. Fibroblast cells displayed the highest tolerance; additionally, the effect of polymer size showed no observable significance. Macrophage cells, immune system representatives, displayed the highest sensitivity to contact with hydrolyzed PETOx. The effect of polymer hydrolysis, polymer concentration and the incubation time on cell viability was experimentally observed. Confocal laser-scanning microscopy provided evidence of cellular uptake of pyrene-labeled (co)polymers.     

Effect of Novel AKT Inhibitor Vevorisertib as Single Agent and in Combination with Sorafenib on Hepatocellular Carcinoma in a Cirrhotic Rat Model

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide. The AKT pathway is often activated in HCC cases, and a longer exposure to tyrosine kinase inhibitors such as sorafenib may lead to over-activation of the AKT pathway, leading to HCC resistance. Here, we studied the efficacy of a new generation of allosteric AKT inhibitor, vevorisertib, alone or in combination with sorafenib. To identify specific adverse effects related to the background of cirrhosis, we used a diethylnitrosamine (DEN)-induced cirrhotic rat model. Vevorisertib was tested in vitro on Hep3B, HepG2, HuH7 and PLC/PRF cell lines. Rats were treated weekly with intra-peritoneal injections of DEN for 14 weeks to obtain cirrhosis with fully developed HCC. After that, rats were randomized into four groups (n = 7/group): control, sorafenib, vevorisertib and the combination of vevorisertib + sorafenib, and treated for 6 weeks. Tumor progression was followed by MRI. We demonstrated that the vevorisertib is a highly potent treatment, blocking the phosphorylation of AKT. The tumor progression in the rat liver was significantly reduced by treatment with vevorisertib + sorafenib (49.4%) compared to the control group (158.8%, p < 0.0001). Tumor size, tumor number and tumor cell proliferation were significantly reduced in both the vevorisertib group and vevorisertib + sorafenib groups compared to the control group. Sirius red staining showed an improvement in liver fibrosis by vevorisertib and the combination treatment. Moreover, vevorisertib + sorafenib treatment was associated with a normalization in the liver vasculature. Altogether, vevorisertib as a single agent and its combination with sorafenib exerted a strong suppression of tumor progression and improved liver fibrosis. Thus, results provide a rationale for testing vevorisertib in clinical settings and confirm the importance of targeting AKT in HCC.